Author: akingenesis

Earlier this March, Apple finally announced and confirmed CarPlay, which is the long-awaited ‘iOS in the car’ project you possibly heard about. Because the lifespan of a car is so long compared to the life cycle of digital technologies like phones and the software they run, the challenge is to create a smart in-car infotainment system that can stay up to date even as your car ages. And so, the battleground is set for the mobile tech world just maybe this time with an “auto” attached to it.

With the fact that most of the big names in the auto industry already have their own systems, it would be a worthy question to ask about what Apple brings to the deck that makes things different. Obviously the technology is not new; and we’ve already seen several cars natively running Android and offering some level of integration with Android smartphones. “CarPlay has been designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPhone and iOS Product Marketing. We will take a moment to explore CarPlay thus, giving you what to expect from it.

First, and maybe most importantly, do NOT let the pictures fool you. CarPlay is not an in-car system that runs iOS or iOS apps. It’s a system that integrates your iPhone apps with your car’s digital systems, allowing you to control them and your device an an easier, tech-savvy manner. The idea is that you plug your iPhone into your car via USB, and viola! You can now use the functionality of your iPhone without having to fumble around with it and take your eyes off the road. Take a moment to imagine how safer and more convenient that could be.

CarPlay aims to empower you to use all your iPhone’s functionality without actually touching it. So that includes playing your music, navigating to the shops, taking phone calls, reading text messages and even watching YouTube videos which you would be able to do from the start. In theory, there are no limits to the interplay. Perhaps you’ll even be able to turn your wipers on and off simply by talking to Siri or unlock your vehicle using your iPhone – but that’s a way off even if it’s possible. And For those who love to play around by “having a conversation with Siri” well, your dreams are as here as technology would possibly have it.

The CarPlay interface takes over the car’s LCD when the phone is plugged in, with all processing running on the device. Much like the iOS interface, CarPlay shows app icons, although in a bigger format. Once upon a time, cars had increasingly featured USB ports that let you plug in an iPod, iPhone, or iPad with its white cable, and control music playback using the car’s own touch screen LCD or dashboard controls. With this integration, you can browse music by artist, album, genre, and track, select something, and play it.

You get to control CarPlay using one of three methods:

Siri voice control: just press and hold the voice control button on the steering wheel.

Touchscreen: If your CarPlay-equipped vehicle has a touchscreen, you can use it to control CarPlay.

CarPlay also works with the knobs, dials, or buttons in the car. If it controls your screen, it controls CarPlay.

Apple’s plans to have third parties building CarPlay compatibility into their apps, making them usable through the system. Apps like Spotify, Podcast, Stitcher and Beats Radio are already confirmed and with access to all their online library features, that long and easy driving entertainment is guaranteed.

No! No!! NO!!! Siri on CarPlay can NOT drive you home. Why? Because it cant! All it can do is give you turn by turn directions with audio cues using the Map app from Apple. You would also like to note that ONLY the iPhones with the lightning connector (iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s) are compatible with CarPlay so, those with the former 30-pin connector would finally have to consider that upgrade. Also no plans have yet been officially announced for an after-market version of CarPlay; which means that unless you buy a car which has CarPlay compatibility installed (of which there are none in existence at this time), you cannot have it. Cars with CarPlay functionality will be hitting the streets later this year, with models from Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Mercedes, Volvo and many other big names in the car industry who are also committed to support the CarPlay platform.

Yuletide greetings have come early for iOS jailbreak lovers round the world with the release of a now confirmed untethered jailbreak for Apple’s new mobile operating system iOS 7. For those who are quite uncertain about what the term “jailbreaking” is all about, jailbreaking can be referred to as “hacking” an Apple device such as an iPhone and iPad, so that users can download apps, extensions and themes that are not available through the official Apple App Store. On one side, this allows the user to have more control on the device in question while pushing it to its limits with new theme interfaces and extensions that enable interesting features such as Bluetooth file sharing, WiFi tethering and even game console emulation. But another side of jailbreaking is the ability for mobile application “piracy” where users could download and install free “cracked apps” on their mobile devices.

Technically speaking, jailbreaking an iPhone or iPad is NOT illegal. But Apple has warned that the practice “can violate the warranty”. It is worthy to also note that jailbreaking your device eliminates security layers designed to protect your personal information and your iOS device which could lead to hackers stealing your personal information, damage your device, attack your network, or introduce malware, spyware or viruses. Finally you should know that unauthorized modification of iOS is a violation of the iOS end-user software license agreement which gives Apple the full right to deny service for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software. But all these don’t scare a LOT of people… one bit.

The evasi0n7 jailbreak, developed by a group known as Evad3rs, claims to work on an iPhone, iPad or iPod running iOS 7.0 through to 7.0.4. It takes 5 minutes of your dear time to install via a USB cable connecting the user’s device to a computer running Windows, Mac OS X or Linux. As the usual risk of data loss and several other complications, the need to backup your data cannot be overemphasized. As with the early versions of these hack tools, it has been confirmed that several hacks and extensions available on the Cydia store would not work properly. Thus, the probability of instability of the device’s operating system has a greater probability at this stage. Always backup your phone before installing new tweaks from Cydia as your iPhone could be stuck in the boot process,” warned evad3rs. “The situation will improve as developers will update their software.”

However, a number of tweaks do work, and thanks to iJailbreak, iPhonehacks.com and RedmondPie, here is a short list of confirmed working and not working tweaks. Please go through them carefully to decide if jailbreaking is okay for you at the moment.

SBSettings (Missing some components, but working, must manually install)

Winterboard: It installs but won’t install themes.

iFile (registration fails even when connected to Cydia)

Not Working:

App Sync for iOS 7

Barrel: The tweak puts the Device into safe mode when you swipe the page.

DreamBoard

No Badges

Power Disconnect Chime (got errors trying to install)

SimpleBanners

SmallBanners

Springtomize 2: has no affect on device.

WiFi Booster (got errors trying to install)

Zeppelin: You can manually install this tweak but has no affect on status bar.

So, when it comes to this matter of jailbreaking iOS 7, we are reminded that “good things come for those who wait.” Cydia is known as the jailbreaking community’s preferred app Store and until several of the commonly used tweaks are working perfectly, you might as well relax and enjoy the holiday; not just for what it is, but for the hope of more dependable updates.

But of course, if you do intend to get along with it, alongside the risks, you can get Evasion 7 here for Windows and here for Mac OSX.

Do you know what’s interesting about the current free-for-all for mobile operating system dominance? You guessed right! New entries! We are sure you have heard of The Firefox OS by Mozilla? Sure you have!

Launching a new mobile OS is a difficult project since the market leaders, Android and iOS, have such a big lead. Even Microsoft, with its near-infinite financial resources and vast ecosystem of complementary products, has struggled over time to gain traction. With the rising standards technology giants have set for themselves as they duke it out for market dominion, new entrants will have to face what I call a chicken-and-egg problem: developers don’t want to write apps for a platform without many users, while users don’t want to buy a phone without many apps.

First off, to sustain any early momentum, Mozilla will need to convince developers to build Firefox OS apps. Firefox OS apps will be built entirely using HTML5. According to Mozilla, the thousands of developers who already know how to build Web apps will be able to build Firefox OS apps with minimal additional training. And because they’re built on open standards, Mozilla hopes that Firefox OS apps will work reasonably well on other platforms that support HTML5—which is to say, all of them.

Thanks to ArsTechnica, we know the Firefox OS architecture has three layers, dubbed “Gonk”, “Gecko”, and “Gaia”. Gecko is the rendering engine at the core of the Firefox browser. Below Gecko sits Gonk, a bare-bones Linux distribution derived from Android. Above Gecko sits Gaia, a touchscreen user interface not too different from those found on other mobile operating systems. It makes sense that Mozilla would choose to make Gonk a derivative of Android because many device makers already know how to make devices that run Android. According to Mozilla “If you’re an OEM, you already have basically all the capabilities to run our system.” It is also worthy to note that since Firefox OS apps are essentially just Web apps, app developers are not required to use Mozilla’s app store at all. A developer can distribute a Firefox OS app as a “hosted app,” delivered from any Web server.

Firefox OS looks familiar to anyone who’s used Android and iOS: when you turn it on, you’re faced with the familiar grid of apps. Swiping left and right slides in other pages of apps. And across the bottom of each page is a fixed set of four apps: the phone dialer, a text-messaging app, the Firefox browser, and the camera app. As with iOS, swiping to the leftmost screen launches a search app. But unlike iOS, this search app is wired not just to your own apps but also to the Firefox Marketplace and to the Web at large — remember, this is a browser-based OS. If you find an app you like in the search results, you can pin it to one of your screens for easy future access. Firefox OS comes with a range of built-in apps such as Facebook and Wikipedia, and even mapping services. A long-press on the home button invokes a task switcher so you can juggle among open apps.

A contacts app lets you open up a screen full of information about people you know. It serves as a hub to phone them, send e-mail or text messages, or check their Facebook walls. Facebook integration also lets people import their contacts; Mozilla plans to add import mechanisms for services like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail — something it knows how to do by virtue of its Thunderbird e-mail software for PCs.

A camera app, which also is accessible from the lock screen, has tabs for taking photos or videos, and it’s got a link to the built-in gallery app. That app lets you crop photos, apply some basic color filters, adjust contrast, and take actions like sharing photos on Facebook or by Bluetooth wireless networking.

It feels so much like an earlier version of Android. It’s definitely good, though, that Firefox OS can get a running start in the app ecosystem by mobilizing the vast army of Web programmers — programmers who might well be happy they can reach Firefox OS customers without having to jump through nearly as many hoops as the Apple App Store or Google Play present. It is already available of several phones such as the ZTE Firefox Phone, Keon and Peek by Geeksphone. Firefox OS should be fully open to all by 2014 and if successful, it should change the way we use the Web. We are used to visit websites but Firefox OS will bring an era where we will be using Web apps more than Websites. Ubuntu for Phones will also support Firefox OS to help bring in this change.

After weeks of rumors, speculations, leaked photos and parody videos, Apple’s new iPhones were finally revealed on September 10 and as widely expected, the company announced two devices – the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S.

iPhone 5c

Apple has discontinued the iPhone 5 for the iPhone 5c, which sports a 4-inch display, as well as the same A6 chip. The company has gone for the cheaper option in producing the “next generation” iPhone as it now features a plastic wraparound back which comes in five colors — green, white, blue, red, and yellow — with matching screen wallpapers to complement the exterior. The color set has been commented on as being similar to that of the Nokia Lumia series but we would leave that opinion for you to explore. Yes, after these, there is not much to say about the iPhone 5c; it even has the same 8 Megapixel camera and 2 Megapixel on the front. You might as well tag it as a “plasticky” colored version of the iPhone 5 and to be honest, when I think about iPhones sometimes, I cannot help but also ponder about the native proverb that says that only a mad man does the same thing and expects a different result.

iPhone 5s

Apple’s new flagship iPhone 5s which Apple “humbly” calls the “most forward-thinking phone anyone’s ever made,” sports a 64-bit A7 chip making it to the history books as the world’s very first 64-bit mobile phone. It’s made of high-grade aluminum and comes in silver, gold, and gray. For networking it has a dual band 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 which was also available in the discontinued iPhone 5.

The general features are pretty much the same, except for the new Touch ID fingerprint sensor that grants up to 5 fingerprints to access the phone. This feature takes phone security to a whole new level. The touch sensor, located under the traditional home button also links you to your Apple account which defeats the sometimes annoying type password feature.

The iPhone 5s sticking with the 8 Megapixel camera is a letdown. However, a few changes made quite a difference compared to previous iPhones. First off, the size of the image sensor has increased which leads to a significantly higher low-light performance and somewhat better pictures; even in poor lighting conditions. More interesting is the dual-color LED flash, which monitors the prevailing light and tries to provide a better color mix by providing the right mixture of lights (like more yellow or more blue, depending on the conditions). This leads to a consistent and greater quality of photos than its predecessors. Neither the HTC One nor the Samsung Galaxy S4 has this feature so, let’s not get too hasty to conclude that the camera is “vaguely similar.”

The iPhone 5S also offers a new “burst mode” for the still camera (taking 10 shots per second), where you can hold the button down and it will take the pictures – and then present the single shot it thinks is the best from the series. (You can still choose from among the set, and keep as many as you want). There is a “slo-mo” option for video recording where you can choose which parts which can be slow and which are fast in a simple editing function.

Some people worry about how there can be a balance between the powerful 64bit A7 processor and battery life. Apple’s solution is the co-processor called the M7 which is specially designed to collect data from the phone’s various sensors, including the GPS and accelerometers. This M7 chip is suspected to be Apple’s flagship idea for a possible wearable computing future so expect to hear about it later on. The iPhone 5s’ battery life lasts about 10 hours of 3g talk time and LTE browsing .

A saddening conclusion is that there really is not a total mind blowing experience between these iPhones and what we already have. But smartphones are not just about hardware; the user experience is also as important as security and Apple does deliver that. Combined with the new iOS 7, positive results on sales would not surprise me one bit… as well as the otherwise. 😛

There have been many reactions to Microsoft Windows 8 and most of them were unsatisfactory in several ways. With an obviously demoralized desktop market and struggling tablet sales, Microsoft has been tasked to come up with a solution to stay faithful to its numerous customers. Windows 8.1, Microsoft’s soon to be released update to the already existing Windows 8, aims to be a clear improvement over Windows 8 in virtually all aspects. It also promises to be more robust than it’s predecessor. It is not another operating system. But as you would soon see, Microsoft has come with a rather interesting solution to the mobile app hating Windows users.

Here are the some relevant changes you should take note in Windows 8.1:

1. The re-introduced Start button

Change seemed to be the central focus of Microsoft Windows 8 and as much as change is needed and inevitable in life, in technology, there is also the secondary debate of knowing what to change… and at which time. So when the native Windows Start button was gone, it was a startling surprise to many about the interface blunder and the question was whether it would be missed or not. Well, judging from the fact that the start button has been installed in Windows 8.1, should we guess it probably was?

In my opinion, it was a good thing that Microsoft reconsidered the start button. But better still, it came with a number of welcome additions which is centered around a more native “desktop-ish” experience of Windows 8. I am one of the many users who just found it rather annoying that Windows booted every time to the Metro interface while I just used the desktop mode. Anyways, you now have the option of booting to the desktop rather than the Windows 8 metro interface with the live tiles. Also, the start menu can send you to the Apps screen, which shows ALL of your installed desktop and Windows 8 apps, rather than that UI based start screen. Thumbs up for that!

2. Search everywhere

Well… what can I say? The search function in Windows has gotten broader. You can now search globally, or limit searches to files, system settings or media from the web. A global search combines your local search results with Bing results. Whether that is exciting or not only depends on you.

3. Live tile control

Remember how frustrating it was when you had a larger number of apps downloaded from Windows Store, and it ended up with you scrolling all over the place to find the app you were looking for on the metro interface? Windows 8.1 now offers a possible solution to organize your tiles by arranging them in groups. You can assign group names and re-size live tiles. I guess that makes life less stressful right?

4. Expanded Snap-in multitasking

The snap-in function of Windows 8 featured the ability to run two Windows Store apps simultaneously on the same screen by “snapping” one of them to the side to initiate a rather interesting split screen experience. You were allowed to only “snap-in” two apps, but Windows 8.1 allows 4 snap-ins. Keep it in mind though that snapping in 4 apps on the foreground drains battery life rather densely.

5. 10 now becomes 11

Sometimes, you cannot pull out the difference between a ten and eleven year old child (except for the age number) and with Internet Explorer, do not expect anything different. Although Internet Explorer 11 claims to have better stability ad faster browsing, it is most likely that it would still be the last browser you would ever open when you have sampled the likes of Firefox, Chrome and the others… or for some reason, you do not know any other browser but Internet Explorer.

6. Windows Store redesign

As if the slow paced, “developing” status of the Windows Store wasn’t an issue, it did not offer a good solution to prioritizing apps that mattered. It only featured an endless scroll of apps in small icons and some not very useful ratings and descriptions. Windows 8.1 has a redesigned Windows Store… but well… that’s pretty much just it apart from the little need for you to manually update apps to be sure you’re on the latest version.

7. Redesigned Settings App

The PC Settings facility in Windows 8.1 offers your system controls in a savvy, modern graphical interface. This matters to those who probably found the regular native Windows desktop Control Panel rather tiresome.

Windows 8.1 is pretty much nothing more than an update… not an upgrade. Microsoft hopes that Windows 8 won’t be around for long after Windows 8.1 comes out and that everyone using Windows 8 will upgrade, just as it hopes we’re all using automatic updates to keep our PCs up to date… lol!

Okay, to be honest, the title of this post really should be “why you SHOULD consider jailbreaking” because I am absolutely crazy about Apple and all of the intelligent things their devices can really do when pushed to their limit. Yes, just like you, I have been there once – stating the pessimistic cause that Apple devices are too expensive for what they are worth. But like the soon to be apostle on the road to Damascus, I have truly seen the light; and I am hoping you get to see the light too.

So enough of my fanciful rambling. Apple devices, especially the iPad series, whether you like it or not, are rather expensive. You bought it because you heard so much about it and that it could (according to that advert) “do almost anything.” But later on, you discover that it’s just a luxury toy and that you don’t do too much with it except run a few apps you bought (or got free on the Apple Store), snap photos, surf the web, play Temple Run or Candy Crush and check e-mail. The question that everyone asks is “what can your device do?” and it can be depressing when you boast of an iPad that doesn’t exactly do as much as you say.

Well, many have heard of this somewhat “evil” process called jailbreaking; and in some communities, jailbreaking is actually frowned upon – but this is usually because people do not know what it really means and the fact that jailbreaking voids your warranty with Apple. Let’s save all the technical stuff about jailbreaking for a later post and cut to the chase: jailbreaking actually allows you to do lots of stuff your iPad really could do but wasn’t allowed to (which is why it’s called “jail-break-ing”) and on this post, there are 10 reasons why you could (or should) consider jailbreaking your iPad.

Here we go 🙂

1. Variety is the spice of life

This is as the saying goes; and trust me on this. Doesn’t the grid interface of the iPad, iPhone and Ipod touch just bore you… even just for some time? Well, a jailbroken iPad is spoiled with numerous tweaks and add-ons that could possibly make all of that boredom go away. Winterboard allows you to change key features of the grid interface like its icon layout and color while maintaining its base structure. To mention how many compatible theme packs are available for Winterboard is akin to counting how many fishes there are in The Pacific. Dreamboard takes this concept several steps further by changing the entire layout. Just imagine your iPad looking like a Windows 8 desktop (without the live tiles) or like an Android Galaxy Tab! Do I have your attention now?

Tweaks such as Beekeyboard allow you to bring a whole new keyboard experience featuring customizable shortcuts and add-ons to apps. Imagine using a keyboard shortcut to open new tabs on Safari… and that is just the beginning! Colorkeyboard is another tweak that even allows you to change the layout of the virtual keyboard. Unlock the fashion sense in you with numerous color combinations of themes and color fixes out there… most for free!

2. App matters

Now, is it possible for me to have Apps for free? Well, even though we at Nijaspecs would always encourage that you support developers and buy your apps (except they are given free), it is VERY possible to have almost any app you want for free. But they MUST be cracked. Don’t worry about iTunes with installing cracked apps; there are other Apple based device managers such as iFunbox, 91 PC Suite for iPhone and iSpirit that can do that for you. It is also possible to just download the app you want and install it live from the iPad without a PC. More details about cracked apps and what to know about them will come on a later post so stay with us.

Furthermore, there is a fun tweak called Password Pilot that helps you save your Apple password so that you would not need to type it once again whenever you want to purchase an app… but be careful about how you use that though.

3. Locked out of a “luxury pad” …you paid for?

Whenever I think about a non-jailbroken iPad, I think about a house that I paid good money for and yet, I do not have the keys to all of its rooms. Having access to a mobile device’s file system is a good way to let the user become able to completely destroy the device; but it also allows you to put and organize your own files EXACTLY where you want to put them. Of course, you should be aware that you should not just go about putting files where they are not meant to be in – but you get the point. Big Boss’ unrivaled wonder jailbreak app called iFile brings to you your complete file explorer service. And when I mean complete, I mean complete: with a built in pdf reader, music player, web viewer, Bluetooth transfer service, file unzipper (including 7-Zip… yes; 7-Zip!), and support for almost every popular filetype. Are we saying that the iPad could now be used like a mobile flash drive? Well… almost a big yes!

4. Privacy issues and customizable icons

App security on the iPad? Of course! I can choose the apps I don’t want anyone to open and even disable it’s ability to be deleted; DisableLaunch makes this possible. Barrel allows the boring page swipe to become more interesting with new swipe animations. FolderEnhancer also lets you to put folders within folders and yes – add custom folder background and animations.

5. Media enhancements

Now if you are okay with the fact that you can only place videos on the iPad using iTunes and having to convert them to some weird mp4 format, skip this one. But of course you aren’t! Well, besides apps available such as AV Player and CineXPlayer on the AppStore that allow other formats, there is the infamous ProTube which even allows you to download videos directly from YouTube on demand. Be sure that the missing YouTube app in iOS 6 would not be missed! The best part is that you would also be able to manage the videos with your computer with the help of your file explorer application and iFile. Imagine the possibilities!!

6. E-Mail the way it is meant to be

Take full control of the iPad’s mail app with tweaks like SplitMail which allows the split view enabled on the iPad on portrait mode. There is also Mail Enhancer Pro which takes your native mail app to the next level with customizable signatures, mailbox color coding and believe it or not, have a voiceover that tells you who just sent you mail. But i think what’s coolest is that you are also able to backup and restore your email on Dropbox through this tweak. AnyAttach does just like it says, allows you to attach anything on your iPad as mail; just think about the possibilities with this, especially when you have iFile under your control.

7. Browser extremes: Download manager on an iPad?

Now this is the real killer. What if I told you that you could actually download your local files from anywhere just like you would on a PC and save it to an accessible point on the device? What if I told you that your Safari browser could have a file download manager and upload client? Notwithstanding, there are other browsers like Maven and Mercury which have file download services but the files you get would not be easily obtained or transferred without jailbreaking.

8. Gesture add-ons

SBSettings gives you a quick drop-down menu for a variety of system toggles such as restarting the device without the power button, airplane mode and others. It even acts a a task manager that gives you information about which apps are running so that you could free up memory – just like a task manager for windows. Activator allows you to add more gesture shortcuts on the iPad. Imagine opening your favorite app with a swipe from the extreme left, or triple click the home screen to open Maps or any other app! Emblem puts your Notification Center to mimic that of the OSX (which feels great on the iPad trust me on this), Mountain Center goes further on the OSX lane, by taking your drag from the top Notification Center to the left or the right; whichever you choose – like the OSX. The best thing about it, is you can also choose which gesture should bring it forth. NCSettings is a powerful variant of SBSettings that puts all the settings toggles on the Notification Center so brightness, Wifi, 3G, GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth, Power options, portrait lock and other options are readily available. A must-have for the iPad.

9. The issue of what you want; the way you want it.

Tired of the four or five icon Dock at the base of the iPad screen? InfiniDock allows you to put as many as you like; just like OSX! IntelliScreenX supercharges your once boring lockscreen with your Notification Center information. Bridge takes care of the iTunes restriction; never again would you be forced to need iTunes to import your music, ringtones or podcasts. NoNewsIsGoodNews kills the forced and rather unnecessary Newsstand folder. Did you like the BB10 keyboard? well knock yourself out with OctopusKeyboard which brings word predictions as you type on the iPad; and if you think that is crazy, try Swipeselection which even enables you to swipe your text cursor to the exact place you need it whenever you are editing on the iPad. This may sound strange but you should try it; you would probably never go back to the default method.

10. Emulation!

Like you probably already guessed… or know, emulation is possible for the iPad also. So, if there were titles you could not just let go of back in the day, you can get them and play them on your device. From SNES, Gameboy, to even the Sega Genesis; make your favorites always available.

and now, the + 1 reason called Springtomize 2!

If there is a reason why iPads should be respected, Springtomize 2 is it. An absolute essential for jailbroken devices. From lockscreen tweaks to Notification Center customization and icon revamping, Springtomize 2 has got it all covered. The tweak will let you alter the looks of your iPad in any way you want…

…and this is how your iPad would never be the same again.

With all of these, we cannot help but ask: “what’s your conclusion; jailbreak or not jailbreak?”

And if you are just looking for that awesome, easy-to-follow guide for jailbreaking and all of these cool things, stick with our soon-coming posts on simplified Apple tips and tricks! We are sure to lead you every step of the way… 🙂

As if the war for what device dominates the 7 inch mini tab form factor was not cruel enough, technology giants Google decided to play another entry with their new Nexus 7, which became available since yesterday, July 30th.

The new Nexus 7 features a raft of improvements over last years Nexus 7; even though they practically look almost the same. First to mention would be that unlike the former Nexus 7, this one comes with the latest update of the Android OS (Jelly Bean 4.3) which of a truth is not that big of a difference really except that you can now have separate customizable spaces, including personal homescreens, wallpapers, apps and storage; which is an appealing idea. So, those whose tablets usually get in the hands of others do not have much to worry about anymore when it comes to people tampering with stuff. It features a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Processor with an Adreno 300 400Mhz, which in simpler terms means the tablet should run pretty fast. there is also 2GB of RAM, a 5MP rear facing camera, 1.2MP front facing camera, Bluetooth 4.0LE, Wireless charging and a new HDMI slim port. With all of that for just about $30 extra, it is sure that comparing sister Nexus devices would lead to some level of unfairness.

Even though the 7 inch screens of both devices are typically same, the new Nexus 7 runs at 323 PPI which is ridiculously sharper than the previous one at 216PPI. This display is one key feature that holds the retina-less iPad mini to question (well, of course until apple decides to release an iPad mini with retina display). Watching movies on the new Nexus 7 is quite commendable honestly; and your Android OS has never looked crispier on any other tablet. The speaker sound on the new Nexus 7 is also improved, and thanks to its thinner design, it even weighs lighter than the previous. With up to 9 hours of HD video playback and 10 hours of web browsing or e-reading, there’s plenty of juice to get you through the day. And very much unlike the iPad, The new Nexus’ slim and lightweight design makes playing games much less strenuous to the wrists.

A truth remains that the new Google Nexus 7 champions the small tablet market for the meantime. A downside to the device would be that there is no SD card slot but its cheaper price range and crispy sharp HD display would give anyone with an iPad mini a run for his money. Google’s second shot at the Nexus 7 isn’t very groundbreaking in terms of innovation but the price is very inviting to tablet newbies. If you owned the previous Nexus 7, then this is certainly a worthwhile upgrade.